The Mare, The Pegasus and The Gophers
by StorySpy
Summary: Carrot Top has an encounter with a trio of super-sized gophers, then after a little scrap, she introduces them to Fluttershy.


One day in Ponyville, Carrot Top, who was also known as Golden Harvest, was walking through the Everfree Forest when she saw a strange green thing that was stuck in a hole in the ground. Thinking that it was a carrot or a radish, she pulled the thing out of the hole only to find that it was a giant gopher that was three times the size of a pony...and the green thing was actually his new hairdo.

"Well, that's not good," said Carrot Top.

The gopher roared at the pony with the orange mane and swiped at her with his claws, but Carrot Top dodged out of the way and ran away from the creature as fast as her hooves can carry her. With an angry roar, the gopher rapidly chased after her.

"I'm sorry!" Carrot Top said to her pursuer, "I thought you were some kind of vegetable! I didn't know that you were trying out a new look!"

In response, the gopher roared at its pursuee.

"I guess you're not interested in small talk," said Carrot Top.

Just then, while she was running, she tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. This wasn't a good thing because the gopher was catching up to her.

"Wait, I'm sure we can talk about this!" she said.

However, the giant gopher leapt towards Carrot Top and attempted to strike, But the orange-maned pony quickly dodged out of the way of the animal's attack. This caused the giant gopher to miss the pony and tumble down the hill in front of him until he crashed down to the ground.

All Carrot Top could say to the incapacitated animal was, "Sorry about that! My bad!"

Just then, she felt the ground rumbling beneath her. Carrot Top realized that this could mean only one thing: that giant gopher had friends in the form of two more of them that were headed this way. Carrot Top was terrified and she ran up the tree closest to her. The two huge gophers soon arrived at the scene of the incident and found their hurt, fallen companion at the bottom of the hill. The huge gophers roared in fury when they saw this, completely unaware that the cause of this whole thing was up a tree, on a branch, right above them.

Then suddenly, with no warning, the branch that she was hanging on to broke and then said branch fell on the closest gopher's head. Carrot Top followed the branch's path soon after and fell on his head, completely knocking the creature out. This got the attention of the other giant gopher. With a mighty roar, the gopher attacked the pony, but she dodged the assault. When he swung left, she dodged right, and when he swung right, she dodged left. The gopher then made another swing at her, but she ducked out of its way, causing the gopher to hit the tree that was behind her. This gave the pony enough time to knock him out with a mighty uppercut. Then, the other gopher regained consciousness, he went on the offensive, but Carrot Top retaliated by going on the defensive and dodging every move that her opponent made.

While this was going on, the gopher that tumbled down the hill recovered and slowly climbed up the hill. Unaware of this, Carrot Top was still in battle with her attacker. She nimbly evaded the giant gopher by literally running circles around him in an attempt to confuse and stupify his stubborn foe. The other gopher got up and jumped back into the fray. The gopher swiped at Carrot Top, but the pony dodged, causing the creature to knock his fellow giant into unconsciousness. Then the gopher swung at Carrot Top, but she dodged only to end up bumping into the gopher that tumbled down the hill earlier and had just now finished climbing back up. To top it off, the gopher that had been knocked out had quickly recovered.

"Oh dear! You are very, very stubborn!" said Carrot Top, who found herself surrounded and outnumbered.

One of the three gophers roared at Carrot Top and furiously swiped with his claws, but the pony daringly leaped out of the attack's way towards the gopher so that she could smack him in the face. When she landed on her rear legs, she kicked him in the knees and hit him with an uppercut that knocked him to the ground. Then, she turned her attention to the other two gophers. As the gophers charged at the pony, the pony rapidly galloped at them until Carrot Top, with quick thinking, mightily leaped over the gophers. By the time that they realized what had happened, she was right behind them. They turned around just in time to get punched by the pony. The gophers struck with their attacks, but Carrot Top was far too quick for the duo. Soon, the pony attacked them and knocked them to the ground.

Apologetically, she said, "Sorry about that! I just wish I knew what your issue is!"

Then, the pony saw a thorn stuck in the paw of one of the gophers.

"So, there's the problem," mused Carrot Top. She went to the gopher's paw and pulled the thorn out of said paw. The gopher quickly got up and loudly roared and pounced down on the pony so that he could...give her a big hug. Carrot Top giggled at this cute affectionate display.

Then, shockingly, the gopher spoke, surprising Carrot Top as he said, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing something about that thorn in my paw! Me and my two brothers were out picking roses for our mama, but then, we accidentally got rose thorns lodged in our paws. As you may have guessed, that made us really upset."

"Oh, I see," said Carrot Top, still surprised.

"We were trying to find Fluttershy, since we heard that she takes good care of any animals that come to see her. However, we got lost in the Everfree Forest, which made our bad day a lot worse. Oh, what a day we just had," said the gopher as he began to weep.

"There, there," said Carrot Top, comforting the gopher, "It's all right."

While the gopher and the pony were having their conversation, the gopher's brothers began to regain consciousness. When they noticed, Carrot Top and the gopher immediately ran to the recovering duo and tackled them. Apologizing after they did that, the pony and the gopher quickly pulled the thorns out of their paws. In response to their assistance, the two gophers hugged Carrot Top and their fellow gopher, who was the middle child of the trio.

"Oh, thanks, thanks, thanks! We've been acting like jerks since we've stepped on those rose thorns. We're so sorry about this whole thing!" said the younger of the two gophers.

"It's all right," said Carrot Top.

"So, no hard feelings about, you know, this whole thing with us attacking you?" asked the young critter.

"As long as there's none about me kicking your furry butts!"

"Oh, excuse me?" sputtered the older gopher, "we were the ones that had you on the run!"

"Only because you caught me off guard," retorted the pony, "It was a good try, but you guys never stood a chance!"

"Oh, you wanna go another round with us, pony girl?" challenged the older gopher, "Let's go! Let's go!"

"No, you don't!" shouted the younger gopher, "I wanna get first shot!"

"Hold it, guys," interrupted the middle child, "We don't need to argue about who kicked whose butt. Even though it was three of us against one of her."

"And she was smaller than us, don't forget that!" added the older critter.

"Smaller and faster, actually," bragged the pony.

"Well, there's one thing that gives us quite the advantage," said the middle child.

"And what's that?" she asked.

"Let me show you. First, hop onto my back," requested the middle child.

Carrot Top hopped onto the gopher's back and said, "Okay, now what?"

"Now, just hang on real tight!" the gopher answered. Then, the gophers sprinted through the forest as fast as they could until they gathered enough speed to leap mightily out of the forest into the clouds, with Carrot Top hanging on for dear pony life. After a short time in the air, they dropped down from the sky and one of them landed in the front yard of Fluttershy's cottage with an earth-shaking thud while the other two got themselves stuck in a nearby tree.

The gopher's landing, however, caused Fluttershy's cottage to shake, causing everyone and everything within the cottage to shake. Jumping to conclusions, Fluttershy, one of her home's many occupants, fearfully shouted, in her own Fluttershy way, "Aaaahhhh! Earthquake! Everyone take cover!"

"Sounds like Fluttershy's home. I'll go get her right away," said Carrot Top as she hopped off the gopher that landed in the front yard. When she got to the door, Carrot Top knocked and said, "Fluttershy, are you there?"

Fluttershy opened the door and said, "Carrot Top? What are you doing here? Is the earthquake over? Did it end that quickly?"

"Earthquake? What earthquake?" asked Carrot Top.

"The earthquake that I felt just now. Didn't you feel the ground shaking?"

"Don't worry, Fluttershy. It wasn't an earthquake," explained Carrot Top.

"Well then, what was it?" asked Fluttershy.

"It was a bunch of gophers that wanted to make an appointment with you," answered Carrot Top, "After all, you're very good at taking care of animals."

"Gophers? Are you telling me that it was gophers that were responsible for this mess?"

"What mess?" asked Carrot Top.

"The mess in my house," answered Fluttershy. She opened her door to her visitor so that Carrot Top could look inside. That's when she saw the mess that the gopher's landing had made of the living room.

"You know, Fluttershy, maybe you can think of this as some long-needed renovation or something."

"Carrot Top, I don't think that was very nice of these gophers. I want to speak to these guys about this at once." said Fluttershy.

"Okay. Guys, would you come over here and tell them you're sorry?"

"Yes, ma'am," said the gopher that landed in the front yard. As soon as he got to his feet, however, the tree that contained his gophery brethren fell on top of him.

"Oh dear," said Fluttershy as she quickly ran over to the fallen tree, "Are you all right?"

In response to her question, the older gopher hopped out of the fallen tree's leaves and said, "Hey there!" This had the effect of completely startling Fluttershy enough to gasp in fear and fly up a tree to a bird's nest.

"Fluttershy! What's your problem?"

"Carrot Top, why didn't you tell me that they were giant gophers?"

"I don't understand, Fluttershy. You're never afraid of gophers."

"That's because they're not so huge. How is this possible?" asked Fluttershy.

"How should I know? Maybe they drank from a magic spring."

"Wait a minute! That spring was magic?" asked one of the gophers.

"You mean you gophers didn't know?" said Carrot Top.

"Actually, we thought that we were drinking ordinary water from an ordinary spring when all of a sudden, we suddenly grew. Needless to say, this caused us a lot of problems. That thing with the rose thorns was a small part of them."

"Oh, dear!" said Fluttershy, "That sounds like you've had an unpleasant day."

"There is one thing I don't understand," said a curious Carrot Top, "How can an ordinary spring make a trio of gophers grow?"

"Well, our spring was perfectly normal to drink from until a zebra ran by and dumped a bottle full of weird liquid into our spring, uttering something about a defective potion not being suitable for lotion," answered the gopher.

"Oh great," said Carrot Top, correctly guessing that Zecora had something to do with this, "I guess we can say that today, we've learned exactly what happens when forest critters share their homes with a magic zebra."

Paying no heed to the snarky undertone that was laced with Carrot Top's comment, Fluttershy said, "Oh, dear. I believe that they should be more careful around Zecora when she's going about her business."

At this point, Fluttershy's pet bunny Angel pulled on her pink mane seeking to get her attention since it was time for her to give him his brunch. When the mane pulling failed, he resorted to hopping onto her head and tapping on it with his feet. And that's when he saw the three gophers. Angel gasped in fright and passed out, falling off his owner's head in the process. This did not go unnoticed by the ponies.

"Oh, Angel! Poor baby," said Fluttershy, whose attention Angel ironically gained when he fainted.

Carrot Top took note of this and said, "Hey, Fluttershy, your bunny faints just as good as you do!"

"Poor Angel. He must've been a little frightened of these...umm...not so little critters."

"Or maybe he's just hungry," was Carrot Top's rebuttal as she shook the bunny awake. Angel regained consciousness and once again saw the gophers, who at this moment had gotten into an argument over who got to eat a pile of leftover vegetables that they found in the yard. In a panic, the bunny leaped onto his master's head and hid in her mane. Angel then regretted this decision when Fluttershy walked toward the gophers, who at this point escalated their argument and went into a quarrel.

"Excuse me," Fluttershy said to the gophers. They weren't listening.

"I said, excuse me," she said again, a little louder. The gophers still weren't listening. They were still quarreling over the vegetables.

Then Fluttershy, getting a little annoyed at the gophers for their continued ignorance of her, got serious.

"I said, excuse me!" said Fluttershy as she used her Stare to force the gophers into submission, causing them to instantly stop quarreling. "Would you all please behave yourselves? That is, if it's okay with you?"

Two of the three gophers apologized to the pony for ignoring her and fighting. Angel then peeked out of his hiding place to see that the gophers were actually behaving in a way that wasn't so scary. The bunny sighed in relief. Then he made a mad dash for the leftover vegetables. After all, he saw an opening and he went for it. However, he also saw the third gopher dash for the vegetables.

"Okay, Fluttershy, now that you've gotten these guys to be on their best behavior, what are you going to do with these critters?" asked Carrot Top.

"Well, I guess they'll have to stay with me until we can get Twilight and Zecora to change them back," Fluttershy said.

"I hope they won't be much trouble for you," said Carrot Top.

"Don't worry, I'll take good care of them," responded Fluttershy.

"I was talking to Angel," said Carrot Top.

Fluttershy turned and saw Angel in a tug of war with the youngest gopher of the trio, with a carrot being the object that was tugged. It was a hard and difficult battle, but a tiny bunny was ultimately no match for a huge gopher, so with one strong pull, the gopher pulled the carrot towards himself and sent the bunny flying into a tree.

"Well, now that I think of it, it _is_ going to be very cramped around here, even by my standards. By the way, Mr. Giant Gopher, I don't think I got your name."

"Oh, sorry. My name's Bim. I'm the middle child."

"Hello, Bim. It's nice to meet you. Who are your friends?"

"This is my older brother Zim, and my younger brother Dim," Bim said as he pointed to Zim and Dib, who were currently in the process of shaking Angel out of the tree he flew into. The tree, in question, happened to be on the apple trees that Applejack planted a while ago. This meant that Angel had lots of stuff to throw at Zim and Dim, who then ate the ammo that he threw at them.

"Funny thing is," added Bim, "I'm the smart one, believe it or not."

"Well, one of us does," quipped Carrot Top.

Just then, Angel fell out of the tree only to be caught by Dim, who then gave the bunny a big hug, which was followed by a big lick that left gopher drool all over Angel's face.

"Awwww," said Fluttershy, "He likes Angel. Perhaps Dim can sleep with him."

Angel's eyes widened at this announcement and frantically struggled to get out of Dim's strengthening grip. Clearly, Fluttershy's suggestion was not what he wanted to hear. Finally, the bunny freed himself from Dim's clutches and ran to his master's mailbox.

"Or maybe Zim or Bim can sleep with him?" suggested Fluttershy.

With a quick wave goodbye, he ran inside the mailbox and slammed the door behind him.

"Oh dear," said the pegasus when she saw this.

"I'm not sure that Angel's wants to sleep with the gophers," said Carrot Top.

"Awww, I guess that means that he doesn't want his post-dinner pre-bedtime snack. I'm making carrot salad!"

With that, Angel threw open the mailbox door and leaped out of said mailbox to hug his owner with his tiny bunny arms. Fluttershy chuckled.

"Wonderful! I'll get the sleeping bags!" said Fluttershy.

"I'll help, too. That is, if that is okay with you," said Carrot Top, in a perfect imitation of Fluttershy's voice that elicited a giggle from the bunny.

"I think that Angel likes it," said Carrot Top.

"I guess it's because you reminded him of Lyra's roommate. She's always trying out different voices so that she can break her string of bad luck."

"How's it going for her so far, Fluttershy?"

"Well, Lyra says that she's still making progress. Her toaster only exploded once this morning."

Carrot Top couldn't help but laugh at this news. She humorously remarked, "At least it didn't explode twice this time."

"Can toasters explode twice?" the pegasus asked.

"Well, I'll have another toaster ready to replace hers any time," answered Carrot Top.

While the conversation of the ponies was going on, the gophers were making themselves at home...by digging a hole so that they could sleep in it. Fluttershy took notice of this and said, "Oh, no no no! This isn't right! You shouldn't be sleeping outside! After I give you three boys a bath, you're coming inside with me!"

"I'd be happy to help you out. After the hard time I gave these gophers, it's the least I could do," offered Carrot Top.

"Thank you, Carrot Top," said Fluttershy as she prepared to give the gopher triplets their bath.

"My pleasure," said Carrot Top.


End file.
